Oedipus the king

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Transcript of Oedipus the king

Oedipus The King By: Sophocles Major Characters Minor Characters Chorus Antagonist Protagonist 3 Major Events Oedipus Oedipus is a man of swift action and great insight. At the opening of Oedipus the King, we see that these qualities make him an excellent ruler who anticipates his citizens' needs. When the citizens of Thebes beg him to do something about the plague, Oedipus is one step ahead of them. He sends Creon to the oracle at Delphi for advice. Creon Creon is portrayed as a pretty stand-up guy. He shows himself to be honest, forthright, and even tempered. The best example of Creon's reasonable nature happens when Oedipus accuses him of conspiracy. Instead of getting all mad and talking junk to his paranoid brother-in-law (and nephew), Creon offers a rational explanation as to why he has no desire for Oedipus's crown. Jocasta Jocasta is the Queen of Thebes, but it's just not as glamorous as it sounds. It seems like her first marriage with King Laius was a happy one, until she received the prophecy that her husband was destined to be murdered by their own son. This, of course, is what caused Jocasta and Laius to pierce and bind their one and only child's ankles and send him off to a mountainside to die. Jocasta is criticized for her distrust of prophecies. Although an understandable prejudice; Jocasta doesn't know that the prophecy Laius received came true. She believes her son to be dead and her husband to have been murdered by a band of thieves. Terisias Teiresias is kind of a cranky old fellow. Though he's blind, he can see better than any of those around him. He's in tune with the mind of Apollo and receives visions of the future. Teiresias is also gifted in the magic art of augury, or telling the future from the behavior of birds. A group of Thebans to comment on the Play's actions to foreshadow future events. They're also used to comment on larger impacts of the character's actions and to expound on the play's central themes. If our protagonist, Oedipus, struggles against anything, it is his own fate. In a way, everything that has happened to him is the fault of fate. (We could infer that everything that happened to him is his fault this making him his own antagonist.) Fate Oedipus is the central figure and the tragic hero in Oedipus the King. His pursuit of knowledge and his fate shapes his downfall. In many ways, Oedipus is a classic hero. His determination is also his greatest asset, and suggest that you think twice before applying simple little labels like "tragic hero" to this guy. Oedipus Setting Setting (Time) · Oedipus the king is set in the mythical past of ancient Greece.Setting (Place) · Oedipus the King is set in Thebes (near Athens). Conclusion Act I Act II Act III Oedipus, aware that there is a curse on Thebes, sends Creon for additional information. Oedipus is informed that to lift the curse, he must find and prosecute Laius’s murderer. He promises to fix things. Oedipus questions Teiresias, a messenger, Jocasta, and a shepherd for information about Laius’s murder and his own birth. Gradually he begins to uncover the truth. Jocasta and Oedipus both realize that they have committed incest and that Oedipus has murdered his father, Laius. Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus gouges his eyes out and is exiled. Conclusion In Oedipus the King, the consequences of Oedipus’s learning of his identity as the man who killed his father and slept with his mother. Oedipus gouges his eyes out with a brooch from Jocasta’s dress. With complete knowledge of what he’s done, Oedipus inflicts injury on himself and begs to be exiled from Thebes. Oedipus is banished from his home. Themes Free Will and Fate A central theme of the Oedipus the King is the tension between individual action and fate. While free choices, such as Oedipus’s decision to pursue knowledge of his identity, are significant, fate is responsible for Oedipus’s incest and many of the other most critical and devastating events of the play Determination Determination is one of Oedipus's and his mother's primary character traits. Despite the important role of fate, determination in Oedipus the King proves less an asset than a flaw to the characters who possess it.